The invention relates to a card receiving device, in particular for a tachograph in a motor vehicle of a flat construction, which completely draws in a card in a plane of movement, with an elongate receiving opening, through which the card reaches the card receiving device, and with a closure, which has a closure element, which extends in the longitudinal direction of the receiving opening and blocks the receiving opening in the closed position of the closure, the closure element being movable in a direction normal to the plane of movement within the travel required for the reception of the card.
The main focus of application of the device according to the invention lies in the area of tachographs or devices for recording the working periods and rest periods of commercial vehicle drivers. However, other applications are likewise feasible, for example in the area of banking and for making payments, or locking systems. The invention is advantageously used in combination with all types of card-like data storage media. On account of the great commercial and legal importance of the data which can be acquired with tachographs, the recordings have to be reliably secured against manipulation. The security measures relate both to data acquisition and data transmission and to the transmission and storage of the acquired data in the memory of the card. Relevant standards place strict requirements on the security standard to be achieved by the measures. It is therefore stipulated that the card should be entirely held by the card receiving device during the reading and writing operations and be isolated from the surroundings by means of suitable closure devices. The closure devices have to be arrested in the closed position during the reading and writing operations. Additional difficulties arise on account of operational failures in conventional devices caused by contamination, in particular by contact being interrupted or even when the card is being drawn in. It is problematical to draw in the card and position it exactly on the contacts of the device because the cards have high manufacturing tolerances in relation to the required positional accuracy with respect to the contacts of the device. Since the cards are predominantly perceived by the user to be distinguished by a high degree of robustness, said cards are generally not handled with the care that is actually required, so that, in addition to the tolerances caused by manufacture, deformation and damage impair the way in which the card operates when interacting with the card receiving devices. Furthermore, the operating conditions in motor vehicles place increased requirements on functional reliability on account of the pronounced vibrations and countless bumps and the wide-ranging temperature fluctuations. Implementing security against manipulation and the desired handling convenience mean it is necessary to draw in the card fully automatically. However, in order to meet this requirement, great difficulties are faced in terms of construction because the installation space available in a tachograph, which is the size of a car radio, provides only approximately a height of 10 mm for the fully automatic drawing-in process. An important application of the invention lies in the area of commercial vehicles, in particular transporters of hazardous materials, for which relevant protection classes are of central significance. For instance, protection against dust deposits, complete protection against contact with live or internal moving parts, protection against penetration by dust or protection against penetration by water splashing against the device from all directions is prescribed as an imperative requirement. These boundary conditions place special requirements on a closure of the receiving opening of a card receiving device.
European Patent Application EP 1 017 013 A3 already discloses a closing device for a device of a similar generic type in which a segmented drum blocks or releases the opening, the drum being controlled and driven by means of a suitable gear mechanism. On account of the great structural and production engineering complexity, the solution is not suitable for mass production. European Patent Specification EP 0 342 407 B1 already discloses a device in which a closure is movable in the generic way, but the proposed solution is extremely complex.
Devices of the generic type with a guillotine-like closing movement are nowadays found in most automated teller machines. The safety requirements in the case of these devices are comparable or even more stringent, manipulation being made more difficult already by the fact that these devices are under constant surveillance. However, the known technique cannot be transferred to a tachograph, because it does not meet the requirements in terms of installation space.